I Want To Learn PHP

[Talks Too Much]

I already know HTML and intermediate CSS, but there's a lot you can't do with those and I want to learn something more powerful, php. Does anyone know a good tutorial? I'm having one trouble finding a comprehensive one that starts from the beginning.

[lemiant]

I like http://www.w3schools.com/php/default.asp . If you don't already, get a free web-host like awardspace, then you can try it out yourself. I just learned by working on a project and learning as I found I needed something.

If you need any advice you can PM me.

[Jogo]

You don't even actually need webspace to try it out. Go ahead and download XAMPP. It'll give you all the tools you need to run PHP locally--including PHP, MySQL, phpMyAdmin, and of course apache.

I *highly* recommend tizag.com for learning PHP (and MySQL). I learned just about everything I know from that website--it's nice and easy to follow.

[plnyyanks]

And http://php.net/ is also a great resource with great documentation about PHP functions and their usage.

[perlgerl]

Many years ago I worked my way through Larry Ullman's "PHP for the World Wide Web". The book slowly builds a complex website, and trouble-shoots it during the process. Sections like "Top Ten Problems" will save you time by quickly solving the typical beginner mistakes. When things go wrong, you can also get help from his active website with up-to-date errata, downloads and a discussion forum.

This book has been superceded by later variations. You can find a copy in a used book store for only a few dollars. Or try the latest edition, "PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites". If you want to learn PHP, you're going to want to learn mySQL before too long.

Working in PHP is great fun. Enjoy!

[lemiant]

Originally Posted by plnyyanks

And http://php.net/ is also a great resource with great documentation about PHP functions and their usage.

I love this resource, use it all the time. I just want to point out for those reading, that php.net is not a tutorial, it is a manual, you use it when amfunction is acting weird.

[JesseK]

Coming from a C++/Java background, going from the ground up in a new langauge can be a pain. This is espeically apparent when there are 1,000 opinions on the "proper" way to do something more complicated than the generic "hello world".

Personally, I found An Introduction to PHP for Scientists and Engineers to be very helpful. It's a good way to make a website that takes input and displays data in an organized way. The book doesn't do database implementations at all. However, I also don't do databases (MySQL, Oracle, etc) for various reasons (either cost $ or take alot of time to make them less vulnerable), so I use proprietary hashed encryption for my important web data files with all of the associated performance and usability tradeoffs. I also don't do large-scale websites at all, so it works well for me. It's a short book, and Amazon/Google Books give a good enough preview that shows the general flow of the whole book. It's for beginners in PHP.

It's also good for scientific work because scientific data rarely comes in database form.

Good luck!

[Kimmeh]

Originally Posted by perlgerl

Many years ago I worked my way through Larry Ullman's "PHP for the World Wide Web". The book slowly builds a complex website, and trouble-shoots it during the process. Sections like "Top Ten Problems" will save you time by quickly solving the typical beginner mistakes. When things go wrong, you can also get help from his active website with up-to-date errata, downloads and a discussion forum.

This book has been superceded by later variations. You can find a copy in a used book store for only a few dollars. Or try the latest edition, "PHP and MySQL for Dynamic Web Sites". If you want to learn PHP, you're going to want to learn mySQL before too long.

Working in PHP is great fun. Enjoy!

I second the use of Larry Ullman's books. They're easy to understand and unlike most technical books, they aren't completely dry.

[JohnBoucher]

Originally Posted by Talks Too Much

I already know HTML and intermediate CSS, but there's a lot you can't do with those and I want to learn something more powerful, php. Does anyone know a good tutorial? I'm having one trouble finding a comprehensive one that starts from the beginning.

What are you trying to do? What benefits do you expect php to give you?

[Dustin Shadbolt]

devzone.zend.com is another resource I have used in the past.

[Ether]

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

What are you trying to do? What benefits do you expect php to give you?

Good question. I think we were all assuming he wants to do some server-side processing, but it's always wise to ask, like you did.

[Talks Too Much]

Thanks for all of your suggestions everyone! I've began going through the tizag.com tutorial, and I think I'm going to order the Ullman book, too.

Originally Posted by JohnBoucher

What are you trying to do? What benefits do you expect php to give you?

I want to include dynamic content, such as a sidebar that displays recent tweets.

[JohnBoucher]

Great. here are some other resources...

https://twitter.com/about/resources/widgets

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009...and-tutorials/